One of the city’s oldest museums, and still one of its best,
the engaging Heritage House offers the most complete picture of everyday life
in old Dubai you’ll find anywhere in town. The house was originally built in
1890 and subsequently enlarged at various times over the next fifty years, most
notably in 1910 by the pearl merchant Sheikh Mohammed bin Ahmed bin Dalmouk,
who was also responsible for establishing Al Ahmadiya School next door.
The building is a classic example of a traditional Gulf
mansion, with imposing but largely windowless exterior walls (except at the
front) and rooms arranged around a large sandy courtyard with a couple of trees
in the middle – a miniature desert at the heart of an urban mansion. Each of
the rooms is enlivened with exhibits evoking aspects of traditional Emirati
life. Mannequins loll around on cushions drinking coffee in the main majlis,
where male guests were traditionally received, business was conducted and news
exchanged, while in the ladies’ majlis a child has her hands painted with henna
while others spin thread, work on their embroidery or grind spices. Finely
carved teak doors with stylized palm and floral motifs lead into the main room
(al makhzan), where further mannequins in rich traditional dress and jewellery
pose amid incongruous Western imports, including an old gramophone, a wireless
and a Seth Thomas clock – the unintentionally comic signs admonishing visitors
to “Please keep away from the exhibits” may be taken with the appropriate pinch
of salt.
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